1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hay for feeding livestock. More particularly, it relates to a vehicle-mounted device configured to render square bales of hay into sequentially positioned small piles of hay on a pasture surface along the route traveled by the vehicle.
2. Prior Art
On modern farms and ranches, hay or grass is the foundation of the diet for all grazing animals such as cattle and horses. Hay can provide as much as 100% of the fodder required for such grazing animals. In many cases, hay is provided as feed to an animal instead of allowing that animal to graze on grasses in a pasture. Such occurs particularly in the winter or during times when drought or other conditions make pasture grazing by the animal unavailable.
Animals that can eat hay vary in the types of grasses which are suitable for their consumption, the ways they consume hay, and how they digest it. Therefore, different breeds or types of animals or livestock require hay that is derived of plants which are similar plants to what they would eat while grazing.
Many animals are fed hay in two daily feedings, such as morning and evening. This schedule can vary and is generally more for the convenience of humans caring for the animals. Left to their own grazing, most grazing animals will naturally consume fodder in multiple feedings throughout a day. Some animals, especially those being raised for meat, may be given enough hay that they have enough to eat the entire day. Other animals, especially those which are ridden or driven as working animals, may only have time to eat when not working and may be given a more limited amount of hay to prevent them from getting too fat.
The proper amount of hay and the type of hay required varies somewhat between different species. In many cases, hay or pasture forage must make up 50% or more of the diet of the animal by weight. Consequently, persons feeding the animals must be able to provide sufficient amounts of hay, in sufficient daily feedings, at the proper locations for the animals to consume it timely. Such a task also must accommodate the use of hay bales which have been formed to industry standard sizes and weights.
To that end, in modern agriculture hay for feed is harvested and then formed to large square bales. An increase in such bale sizes has become progressively more attractive as the power of vehicles employed on farms has increased to more easily handle the weight and bulk of larger bales in feeding livestock.
However, as noted above, these hay bales must be broken up and positioned in pastures and fields where the livestock reside. In most cases, also as noted, this task must be accomplished multiple times a day.
While large agricultural corporations can afford the capital investment for specialized equipment adapted to transport and cut hay bales into smaller increments which are deposited on pastures, small farmers and ranchers generally cannot afford such an investment in single-use machinery. As a consequence, different tactics have been employed by smaller farmers and ranchers to reduce the large heavy hay bales to strategically positioned smaller portions of the bale for their livestock to eat. One popular but time and labor intensive mode of such bale distribution requires the positioning of one or more bales onto a pickup or flat bed truck, and using pitchforks or other tools to cut the large bale into small pieces which are pushed from the moving vehicle to multiple locations in the pasture. This of course requires one person to cut the bale into sections and a second person to drive the vehicle.
While such a method allows for the purchase and transport and use of more economical larger bales of hay, it is labor and time intensive for at least two individuals at the same time. On small farms and ranches where days are long and time is perpetually short to accomplish all the required tasks, such a time and labor intensive manner for distributing hay to the animals, while required by the inability to purchase single-use expensive equipment, is at best ineffective.
As such, there exists an unmet need, for a vehicle-engageable device, which performs the task of flaking or cutting large heavy hay bales to small portions. Such a device should be operable by a single individual. Such a device should be engageable to a pickup truck or flat bed or other vehicle capable of traversing a pasture but removable to thereby allow for other uses of the powered vehicle. Such a device should allow for the user to choose a portioning size of each flake or cutting from the hay bale. Further such a device should be configured to sequentially deposit these individual portions of hay, along a route driven through the pasture. Still further, such a device should ideally be able to carry a plurality of hay bales to eliminate wasted trips back to the bale supply for refilling.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the disclosed hay bale shredding invention and method described and claimed herein. Various limitations of the related art are already or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.